Cheap Ric Flair: To Be the Man (Book) (Ric Flair, Keith Elliot Greenberg) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Ric Flair: To Be the Man

He did it all ( NWA - WCW - WWF and the WWE) and his career spans over 3 decades so he has the background for a bio of this magnitude. From the most hilarious story ( Terry Funk naked on Flair's lawn with a knive in his mouth chasing Flair's dog! ), to the most heartbreaking ( RAW - Greensville - May 19 2003 - Flair vs HHH with surprise post celebration ), to the most frightning ( airplane crash ! ), with the exception of Have a nice day this is the most honest book on the subject.

By honest i mean brutally honest man! The Nature Boy tells it like it is.On then WCW president Jim Heard, Ric said :

- I'd spent all these years putting up with (...), sacrificing my body, and never seeing my oldest kids, to find myself manipulated by the whims of a moron, a (...) pizza company executive with his finger on the trigger.

I was in shock when he said that Shawn Michaels was a much better wrestler then Bret Hart ( who he finds not that great ) or that Mick Foley was not a wrestler but more of a whipping boy who got throught beacause he could bleed and take punishment. Not in shock beacause i don't agree with him ( well i don't but that's another story right! ) but beacause he's HONEST and he does not hold back his opinions. It's facinating to have the best of the best disagreeing with your own view and it makes you see the business throught another viewpoint.

What set this book aside from Foley is the fact that editor Mark Madden did an amazing job of editing this book mixing Naitch own story with interviews from those who got to know Flair ( Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat for example). It gives the book an edge that no other WWE bio had before. Brilliant!

P.S : I don't think anyone will disagree with his view on Hulk ( I wrote a supposed tell all bio that's full of holes and filled with lies ! ) Hogan and Eric Bishoff. Actually what he wrote about Hogan is very interesting since Hogan does not talk at all about his relation with Flair in his book!

You can never imagine how this book touched me...
I've been a wrestling fan for almost 14 years now. Still my priorities were with WWF/E. Ric Flair was not an unknown to me, but I just didn't know his greatness. Untill a couple of years ago ,I became a big fan of the "Nature Boy". I loved his charisma and work ethic. Yet, I still didn't see the stuff of greatness. I bought his DVD and was mesmorised. The guy was divine. He instantly became my favorite wrestler because of the fact that I haven't seen this kind of quality in wrestling matches. So eventually I bought this book . Now, I read a lot of wrestling books including the critically acclaimed Foley books. I still hold his first in high esteem, but this definately topped it. Foley's book was very well written and funny enough to let me ROTFL! But I never, ever expected a book to generate this much emotion from me. During the last chapters of the book, I admittedly wept my tears off my face. The book was so honest that I really felt Flair's depression. Here was a guy, strutting on TV, chanting "WOOOOO!", and being a limousine ridin son of a gun. Yet he was struggling with self doubt. I'm a tough guy. I hold a tough man reputation. Putting me into tears is a nearly impossible thing to do, yet this book did.But how will I recommend it the crowd ? If you like wrestling, you will absolutely love the stories told in this book . They will make you laugh . Flair was so honest about his divorce, blaming himself and wondering how could flair's first wife live with him. The book also includes comments from various superstars like HHH, Shawn Michaels, Ricky Steamboat, Harley Race,Chris Jericho,etc... I couldn't recommend this enough. If you've just heard of Ric Flair, nothing more, then buy this . Read it again and again . Ric has once again proved why he's the measuring stick . "To Be The Man" is a wonderfull journey full of laughter, pride, sorrow , and depression. A "real world" fairy tale with a prince charming that wore custom made suits ,diamond rings, corvette cars, limousines, jets, 16 World Championship reigns, and most importantly a family to love. Ric , you proved to me that you are the MAN! WOOOOO!

Well Worth It
This is the story of Ric Flair, written towards the end of his career. Flair's book has an advantage over other wrestling books. Since he wrote it now, as opposed to ten years ago, it is pretty comprehensive, whereas when people like Rock and Foley wrote their's, they were unable to cover everything since their careers still had plenty of more time. The main advantages Flair has though are his life experiences, stories, and accomplisments. Put another way, he has a lot better material to work with than other wrestlers because he has been around a long time and practically 'done it all.'

So what is in the book? A few chapters about his early childhood, years in high school and college, and then the story of how he broke into wrestling. From there, he tells of the people he first met, and how he was in awe of many of them, as he had followed their careers. We learn that Flair was an avid wrestling magazine collector, who idolized many wrestlers. Flair talks a lot about people like Wahoo McDaniel and Dusty Rhodes.

From there he talks about his early successes. Among them are some title wins (tag titles, tv title) and his early feud with Ricky Steamboat. A lot of the book is devoted to his first few reigns as NWA champion. Less is devoted to his first stint in WWF, his return to WCW, and then his take on different time periods in WCW, mainly when Hogan first came in, when the NWO was hot, and then when Russo came in.
Do not worry though, he spends enough time talking about his backstage battles and concerns with Hogan, Bischoff, and Russo that the reader should be satisfied.

Throughout the book, he gives his take on several wrestlers like: Savage, Sid, Bret, Sting, Lugar, Triple H, Jarett, Foley, Michaels, Undertaker, Hogan, the list goes on. While I do not agree with everything Flair had to say about these guys (I especially disagree with him on Bret and Savage), he is Ric Flair and I believe he has the right to be heard. Basically, Flair tries to distinguish between a "good" wrestler and a "great" wrestler. To him, Bret and Savage are just good, whereas people like him, Steamboat, and Michaels are great.

This is far from a perfect book, but I'd still give it 5 stars. If you ever wanted to know what kind of person Flair is, and what he thinks, you will get a lot out of this book. You will not get everything you want, but probably more than enough to satisfy.